Bookworm: A Summer Love Story
by hylianprincessZ
Summary: Zelda has been forced by her parents to give up her summer vacation to work full time in a stuffy book shop. All because she's supposedly a "bum". So when love presents itself there at the store, will she take the bait, or will she let the dusty books get to her? Zelink, modern AU. Summer one-shot! Rated T for mild language.


******Hey guys and gals! Happy summer! Here is my summer one-shot for all of you people, and don't forget to review!**

**Disclaimer: a**

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**Bookworm: A summer love story**

"This sucks." A bleach blonde girl about 19, with fair skin and violet eyes muttered. It was her first day of summer vacation and here she was, in a _bookstore_, and what was worse? She was _working_… She had been forced by her parents to get a summer job because she was what they called, "a bum"… _whatever_.

The girl, named Zelda, sighed, there was no way she'd be able to go to the beach this summer, the bookstore was understaffed, so those who were hired had to work full time. Zelda figured by the end of the summer she would qualify for a manager with all of the hours she was doing, but she would have to quit so she could finish her senior year of high school. Ew.

The Royal Hyrule Bookstore (or the Bookworm's club as the high schoolers called it) was understaffed because they were losing customers. With the increasing population of a younger generation in Castle Town, less and less people wanted to read books. If they did, they all had the new Din's Fire E-reader tablets where they could download books instantly.

Those Hylians were more like Zelda, contemporary and thirsty for excitement. No one liked stuffy old books anymore, so it was just Zelda's luck that she got stuck working in a bookstore. She sighed again, pulling out her Gossip Stone 3.0 and checked her messages. It had taken her three weeks of begging to finally convince her parents to get her the exclusive touch screen phone, and she treasured it with her life.

She had a message from her best friend, Midna.

_Hey! How's work going? When I pick you up later will you have turned into one of those library minish? I hope so! Then, I can torture you, and treat like a little hamster. Hee hee just kidding, Zel. I'll pick you up at 4 ;)_

_Middie 333_

Zelda smirked, _very funny Middie._ she thought, thenShe replied with a borderline facetious/sarcastic comment.

_Okay Middie, but let's not forget that this "librarian minish" is the one who will help pay for your "Dark Stalking" addiction!_

_Zel ;)_

A few moments later, a reply came back:

_No! It's not an addiction! I DO NOT stalk him! I just… happen to see where he is going in a premeditated manner. DO NOT MAKE FUN OF STALKERS! We have serious mental problems, so we may just go psycho on you ;)_

_Middie 333_

Zelda stifled a laugh. She couldn't laugh out loud because if she was too noisy her boss, Ilia, would come out and yell at her. Then she would fire her, and Zelda wouldn't get paid, and her parents would be pissed. Her efforts were in vain, however, because at that moment the brunette stuck her head out of her management office and glared at Zelda.

"Harkinian! Are you on your _cell phone?_ What was the first thing I told you, you little prick! There are no personal calls_ or texts unless it's an emergency. _By the way if you're laughing right now, instead of working the cash register, I can assume you counted all the money and sorted it, yes?"

Zelda gulped, and, without looking at her phone, texted Midna a good bye and shoved her phone in her back pocket. Ilia had left her office and was storming over to Zelda. She reached the front desk where Zelda was seated and walked behind it. She grabbed a key off the corkboard on the back wall behind Zelda and unlocked the cash register. She gave a displeased grunt looking at the disarray that met her when she opened the tray.

To allow Ilia to inspect her failure, Zelda had stood and had gone over to the counter, far away from Ilia as she could get before she got yelled at.

"HARKINIAN!" Ilia barked, "What is _this_! You better have a damn good reason for this!"

Zelda frowned, Ilia always got worked up over nothing, but whatever, all Ilia needed to do was let off some steam, so Zelda remained silent.

"No excuse, huh? You're lucky I need a cashier, otherwise you would be fired! Now GET TO WORK AND FIX IT. Also, give me your phone. You'll get it back at lunch. Come on now, give it! Thank you, now I'll be back in five minutes, you better have that cash register cleaned up."

Ilia strode off, placing Zelda's baby in her back pocket, and re-entered her office, slamming the door shut. Zelda was furious, yeah she didn't do what she was supposed to, but this wasn't _elementary school_! Ilia hadn't needed to take her phone away. Gee, what a crazy lady!

Zelda continued grumbling and brooding for a few minutes as she fixed up the cash register. When Ilia returned, she was happy with the results, but not enough to return Zelda's phone.

"Dammit." Zelda said under her breath, but not quietly enough.

"I thought there was a no cursing rule in this book store? Or did that get changed?"

Zelda whirled around in her chair to face the bemused looking boy's face. He wore a dark green v-neck with a green baseball cap with the logo of Hyrule High's baseball team and khaki shorts with brown leather sneakers. He had dirty blonde hair with long bangs arrayed crookedly across his forehead. On his face was another lopsided grin, showing off his perfectly clear face and toned 6' body. He was _hot_.

"Uh, uhh…" Was Zelda's clever reply. _Real smooth, Zelda, real smooth._

The boy laughed, "It's alright, I'll keep it a secret from that devilish boss of yours if you do me a favor."

Zelda's eyes widened, "Uhhh…?" She was _still_ unable to properly form words? Really? Great, just great!

He smirked, cocking his head to the side and raised his eyebrows, "Are you okay? Or are you just struck dumb by my godly good looks? Ah, I'm just playing, don't make that face! Anyway, all I was going to ask was where the _Book of Mudora: Ancient Translations _was in this store. I can't find it anywhere."

Zelda stared at him a few seconds, unable to comprehend a single word he had just said.

_Goddesses! I'm so stupid!_

Zelda nodded fiercely and brought out the huge log book that kept a record of all the books the store sold. Seriously, that thing weighed at least ten pounds! She threw it on the counter with a loud _bang!_ and sifted through it to the 'B's'. After a few moments of looking at similar titles (how many _Book of Mudora_ s were there?) Zelda finally located it. She looked up at the boy, smiling weakly and pointed him in the correct direction, not trusting her voice.

The boy thanked her and walked off, leaving Zelda to heave the book back onto the shelf underneath the counter. When she was done, she collapsed onto her chair and let out a long exasperated sigh, furious with herself. Normally, she was the flirty one who left the boys speechless, not vice versa.

_Who was that boy? He was so… handsome!_

Determined to find out, Zelda stood up to head in his direction, but at that moment, Ilia came out of her office again. She glared at Zelda, and told her come with her. Together, they had to clean up some brat's vomit in the fiction aisle while Malon covered for Zelda at the cash register. Zelda grumbled in protest but shut up when she saw how pissed off Ilia was about the situation. If she saw Zelda complaining, she would most likely rip her head off. No joke.

However, in this situation, Zelda wasn't there when the boy checked out his book and left. When she returned, it was all Malon talked about.

"Oh, Zelda! He was so handsome! He didn't say anything, but I could just _tell_ that he had a nice, deep voice. He had long dirty blonde bangs-"

blah blah blah blah blah blah, you heard his description already.

Malon went on about him for 15 minutes, mostly repeating herself. Zelda groaned, placing your hands over her ears. Finally, Malon left to put some books on the shelves, and Zelda thanked the goddesses. Malon was a sweet girl, but she was _so_ talkative! It was crazy. It probably had something to do with growing up on a farm.

Zelda looked at the clock after the ginger had left and saw that it was her lunch break. She yelled to Ilia saying she was going to lunch and wanted her phone, and grabbed here lunch bag and purse. Ilia walked out of her office; hand on her hip, Zelda's phone in the other. Zelda hastily grabbed it and dashed out of the accursed store.

Zelda walked to the nearby food court in Castle Town and grabbed a random seat under an umbrella. It was a beautiful summer day with a nice breeze, it made Zelda wish she was at the beach even more. She frowned, checking her phone. No messages. She stuck the phone in her pocket and took out her peanut butter sandwich, and a bottle of cold, low-fat Lon Lon Ranch chocolate milk. She ate the sandwich slowly, looking across the food court.

Suddenly, she saw something that caught her attention. She saw a familiar baseball cap lurking in the crowd at the end of the line for _Granny's Potions and Soups _store. She suddenly had a craving for soup, and not peanut butter sandwiches. She threw the half-eaten protein in a nearby trash can and headed towards the baseball cap. To her joy, she was able to stand right behind him. She didn't want to seem like a stalker, so she waited for him to notice her instead of greeting him right away. She had to wait a bit though, because Midna called a few seconds after she got in line.

"Hello?" Zelda asked sweetly, the boy in front of her looking at her out of the corner of his eye.

"Zel! You wouldn't believe it!"

"What? What is it?"

"He asked me out! The stalking paid off!"

"Wait, what!"

"Dark just asked me on a date! We're going to the Planetarium! He says he _loves_ stars. Oh, I'm so happy! Hey, did you turn into a library minish yet?"

Zelda laughed inwardly, subconsciously noting that the boy kept looking back at her, his bright blue eyes flashing in the sun.

"That's great Middie! I'm so happy for you! But no I didn't. I don't think I would have been able to answer the phone if I did."

"True. Oh, and one more thing, Zel."

"Yes?"

"Could you come with and make it a double date?"

"Huh? Why?"

"Now that I think about it, it would be so awkward just the two of us sitting in a planetarium, possibly French-kissing. So we need someone there with us. How about it? Can you get a date for the Planetarium?"

Zelda bit her lip, looking quickly at the boy in front of her as the line moved forward. She looked back at the ground when he turned to glance at her again. She was positive he was listening to the conversation with his hawk-like ears. This was her chance!

"Uh- Yeah! I think I can, what time?"

"7 PM. Again, at the Planetarium. We're also thinking of getting dinner before, so I'll call you if that change occurs. Oh, thanks so much Zel!"

Zelda smiled, and said good bye to Midna, hanging up. She looked up and made eye-contact with the blue-eyed boy. He smirked, cocking his head to the side in his oh-so-cute manner.

"Hey again. I meant to thank you for showing me the book earlier, but some red-headed girl was there instead. No offense, but does she ever shut up?"

Zelda giggled, surprised she could speak when she said, "Not usually, but she's a sweetheart. Her name's Malon."

"Interesting."

"How's that?"

"Hmm? Oh, how I find out the talkative one's name before the pretty one's, even though I'm talking to the pretty one."

Zelda eyes widened, her face flushing a deep red. The boy laughed at her reaction,

"You're so funny! Fine, I'll tell you my name first, Miss Shy. My name is Link Avalon, at your service."

Link bowed mockingly, tilting his head up and staring into Zelda's eyes. Her face (if possible) became even redder, and she felt like she was going to faint.

"Z-Zelda Har-Harkinian."

Link bounded up, extending his hand. "Nice ta meet ya, 'Z-Zelda Har-Harkinian!'"

He smirked again, his eyebrows wiggling in a flirtatious manner. Zelda laughed, covering her face.

"N-no! My name is Zelda Harkinian! Duh!"

"Oh, okay, princess, but I think I like Z-Zelda better." He stuck his tongue out and walked up to the screen to take his order. Zelda frowned in mock anger and folded her arms across her chest. Link ordered a red potion and Zelda stepped forward to order her favorite pumpkin soup.

"Well, princess, shall this humble knight join you for lunch?"

Zelda raised her eyebrows, "Humble? Yeah right, you called yourself godly earlier!"

"Details, details." He said, waving Zelda's words off dismissively. She laughed and led him back to her table. She sat down, and he did the same.

Lunch was splendid from a culinary aspect, and a social aspect. The more Zelda talked to Link, the more she liked him. It got to the point that she felt her heart was going to burst. She could understand Midna's feelings now, she would follow Link anywhere.

_Wait, no! That is creepy Zelda! You are __not__ a stalker like Midna, nor will you ever be!_

When they were done eating, they cleaned up their trays and gathered their things. Link was kind enough to walk Zelda back to the bookstore. She thanked him and turned to go back in, when he grabbed her wrist. She turned and looked at him, shocked.

"Wait! Uh, sorry," He let go of her wrist, "ahem, don't you have something to ask me?"

Zelda looked at him, confused, "What do you mean?"

"You forgot already? Don't you need a date to the planetarium?"

So he had eavesdropped, of course. Zelda grinned, ready to toy with him,

"No I don't, I've already got one."

His face fell drastically, his questioning smile faltering,

"O-oh, sorry for asking then."

Zelda laughed, "Yep, so I expect you to meet me at my house at 6:30 P.M. No later." She handed a shocked Link a slip of paper with her number and address, and went back into the bookstore. Link grinned, and walked off to his car, clearly pleased.

Four O'clock came quickly, and Zelda ran out of the bookstore faster then The Postman on an express delivery. She ran up to Midna's sexy black sports car, opened the passenger's seat. and slid in. Only then did she allow herself to breathe.

"So, how was it being a bookworm for a day?"

"Terrible at first, lunch was amazing, then the rest of the day was boring, but went quicker then the morning."

Midna, turned her bright orange head towards Zelda, eyebrows raised. Midna was a Twili, so she had beautiful blue skin and fiery orange hair. She was wearing a black tank top with short shorts and original converse. She looked so much nicer than Zelda did in her Khakis, with a red polo. Zelda hated her uniform.

"Oh? Was my call really that amazing? Or did you find your date?"

"Both! I met this really great guy named Link."

Zelda then relapsed into how they had met, and their lunch together, ending with how she had led him on. Midna laughed as they pulled along the long, winding roads of Hyrule Field back to Zelda's house. When they passed the Planetarium they both stared at it, with excitement for the night to come evident on their faces.

Midna dropped Zelda off at her house, telling her that Dark didn't want to go out to dinner, just the Planetarium, and drove off. Zelda entered her house, running up the plush carpeted steps to her parents bedroom. She told them about her plans for the night, and then ran to her room to get ready. She showered, dried her blonde hair and curled it. Then she chose a cute navy blue skirt and lacy white tank top. She put her makeup on sparingly, her friends always told her she was better off natural, and slipped into white bohemian sandals.

When she was done, Link had just pulled into her driveway. He got out of the car, and he was wearing a crisp blue polo with black dress pants, no hat, and black dress shoes. He had slicked his hair back, making him ten times more handsome. Zelda's heart hammered in her chest, and she flew down her stairs to answer the door.

She opened it before he could even knock, and he looked surprised when his balled fist knocked on Zelda's forehead instead of the oak door. Zelda let out a laugh, and stepped out of the doorway onto the porch.

"Hey! Watch it Link!"

He laughed as well, rubbing Zelda's forehead, examining it like a doctor, a smirk on his face.

"Well, I don't think you'll live from it. I'm sorry, make sure you say your goodbyes."

"Oh no! Well, I guess you better drive me to the Planetarium so I can say good bye to my best friend Midna!"

"I guess I'll have to! Oh, darn! I had made plans with another girl to go there today at the food court!"

Zelda grinned and walked to Link's white sedan. His License plate read, "EPNA64" and the interior was a stark white leather.

"I love your car!"

"Ha, thank you! I worked for five years in a bazillion stores to save enough to buy her. She's a Toyota Avalon, I find it funny she has the same name as me."

"Yeah, really! Anyway, we should go if we want to arrive on time."

Link nodded, and they got in the car. He started it, turned on the radio, and pulled out of the driveway smoothly. It took about fifteen minutes to get the Planetarium, all of which were filled with hearty conversation on miscellaneous topics, and singing the lyrics wrong (on purpose) to songs. Zelda had never laughed so hard in her life, and she was pretty sure that she would have permanent smile lines afterwards. They pulled into the Planetarium's gravel parking lot just as Midna and Dark arrived. Dark was driving the same model car as Link, but in black.

Dark had long black hair tied back into a ponytail with long bangs strewn haphazardly across his forehead. He had deep black eyes and a pale complexion. He was tall and skinny, and he was wearing a black v neck with dark wash blue jeans and black boots. He dressed funny, but it fit him, and even complimented him. Zelda didn't want to admit it with Link right next to her, but Dark was handsome.

Together, the duos entered the Planetarium and quickly found seats next to each other. The program started, and Zelda was soon immersed in the universe and the creation of Hyrule. She was mesmerized by Pulsars, Red Giants, Super giants, and White Dwarfs. Her breathe taken away by the different types of emission, dark, and light nebula. In all, space was beautiful, and Zelda couldn't get enough pictures of it. Then the speaker began talking about the history behind Astronomy in Hyrule and how it was banned at first by the King of Hyrule as blasphemy against the goddesses.

Then when the scientists couldn't disprove or come up with an alternate theory to the creation of Hyrule, the King slowly accepted the practice of the science. It was fascinating, even more so because Link was well studied in the historical area. He donated tidbits of information to Zelda when the speaker left out a piece or gave back stories to names of Nebula and Stars. It was a beautiful and educational trip.

Somewhere in the middle of the program, Zelda looked over and saw that Midna and Dark had indeed started to make out. She was embarrassed by their behavior, but knew Midna would hate her for life if she interrupted them now. She looked at Link to see if he noticed, but saw that he had been staring at her instead.

"Hey, you okay Link?"

"Hmm? Yeah, just thinking."

His tone was different, almost melodic.

"Oh, really? About what?"

"About how much I like you, and how much I want to kiss you of course."

Zelda blushed, but knew Link couldn't tell since the lights were turned off. He had made her so happy just by saying those words, but she wanted to mess with him first. Call her evil if you want, but Zelda loved leading Link on, only to tell him that she indeed liked him back in the end.

"Too bad."

"What?"

"I'm not that easy to get you know."

"Oh really?"

"Yes, so if you want my kiss, you'll have to give me a reason."

"Dammit." he said under his breathe, but just loud enough for Zelda to hear. He had a small smile on his face, as if he could tell where she was going with her tease.

"I though that there was a no cursing rule in this Planetarium, or did that change? I guess I'll just have to shut you up."

Link grinned as Zelda pressed her lips to his, and they kissed softly for a few minutes. Then, Zelda slowly inserted her tongue in his mouth, and the kiss became much more passionate. They made out like that for the rest of the forty five minute program.

During that loving kiss under the stars, Zelda realized a few things. That one, even though her summer had been ruined, she would still have fun. And two, working in a book store wasn't so bad. She liked books, and would probably start reading some of the ones they had in that store, but she liked the customers even better. She would become a regular bookworm.

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**So what did you think? I got the idea from an article I read from Seventeen magazine, so I hoped you liked! Oh, I know this is a little long to be considered a one-shot, so I'm gonna call it a long-shot, like a bow. Anyway, please tell me what you thought of this little story of mine! Then go check out JennaMarbles on Youtube (she's freakin' hilarious!)**


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